Indigenous Governance among the Southern Afar (ca. 1815-1974), Ethiopia

The Sultanate of Aussa among the Afar has been vigorously implementing its indigenous governance. It was the incorporation of the Sultanate into the Ethiopian central government in 1974 that ushered the demise of its independent existence. The question that naturally follows is that how the centralization of power degenerated, in relative terms, the non- hierarchic system of indigenous governance? The objective of this paper is to identify the elements of indigenous governance and the mechanisms of how this indigenous governance kept peace and stability in between 1815-1974. It also attempts to investigate how the status quo was affected by the internal and external factors that withered the dynamics of indigenous governance which resulted in the frequent occurrence of conflict. The data for this work are qualitative and taken from a review of published and unpublished historical, ethnographic and sociological materials. Relevant conceptual framework related to the subject is also used to interpret and analyze the literature consulted. Based on the data, the paper argues that  the incorporation and subordination of Aussa in favor of imperial centralization has a negative consequence on the indigenous governance of the relatively stable Afar communities. The result demonstrates that the indigenous system of governance works to the best of the interest of its peoples, provided that it is given proper protection and respect that in turn promotes peace and stability.Key words: Indigenous governance, Sultanate of Aussa, Emirate of Adal, imperial centralization, Conflict, structural functionalis

Molecular Gas during the Post-Starburst Phase: Low Gas Fractions in Green Valley Seyfert Post-Starburst Galaxies

Post-starbursts (PSBs) are candidate for rapidly transitioning from star-bursting to quiescent galaxies. We study the molecular gas evolution of PSBs at z ~ 0.03 - 0.2. We undertook new CO (2-1) observations of 22 Seyfert PSBs candidates using the ARO Submillimeter Telescope. This sample complements previous samples of PSBs by including green valley PSBs with Seyfert-like emission, allowing us to analyze for the first time the molecular gas properties of 116 PSBs with a variety of AGN properties. The distribution of molecular gas to stellar mass fractions in PSBs is significantly different than normal star-forming galaxies in the COLD GASS survey. The combined samples of PSBs with Seyfert-like emission line ratios have a gas fraction distribution which is even more significantly different and is broader (~ 0.03-0.3). Most of them have lower gas fractions than normal star-forming galaxies. We find a highly significant correlation between the WISE 12 micron to 4.6 micron flux ratios and molecular gas fractions in both PSBs and normal galaxies. We detect molecular gas in 27% of our Seyfert PSBs. Taking into account the upper limits, the mean and the dispersion of the distribution of the gas fraction in our Seyfert PSB sample are much smaller (mean = 0.025, std dev. = 0.018) than previous samples of Seyfert PSBs or PSBs in general (mean ~ 0.1 - 0.2, std dev. ~ 0.1 - 0.2).Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures accepted in MNRA

Coupled Coincidence Point and Coupled Fixed Point Theorems via Generalized Meir-Keeler Type Contractions

We prove coupled coincidence point and coupled fixed point results of ∶×→ and ∶→ involving Meir-Keeler type contractions on the class of partially ordered metric spaces. Our results generalize some recent results in the literature. Also, we give some illustrative examples and application

Stability analysis of homogenized stone column reinforced foundations using a numerical yield design approach

International audienceThis paper deals with the ultimate bearing capacity of soft clayey soils, rein-forced by stone columns, analyzed in the framework of the yield design theory. Since such geotechnical structures are almost impossible to analyze directly due to the strong heterogeneity of the reinforced soil, an alternative homogenization approach is advocated here. First, numerical lower and upper bound estimates for the macroscopic strength criterion of the stone column reinforced soil are approximated in a rigorous way with convex ellipsoidal sets, which makes the approximated criteria much easier to handle than the initial ones. Then, both static and kinematic approaches are carried out numerically on the homoge-nized problem using the above approximated macroscopic strength domains in an adapted finite element method. The whole numerical procedure is applied on one classical geotechnical problem: the ultimate bearing capacity of stone column reinforced foundations. The strength capacity of the structure is rigor-ously framed and the efficiency of the proposed numerical method is highlighted in terms of accuracy and calculation time

Aspergillus species and aflatoxin contamination in pepper (Capsicum annuum l.) in West Gojjam, Ethiopia

Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is an important spice and source of income for smallholder producers in Ethiopia. Since the larger proportion is for the market, it takes a significant share of the national income from export commodity. However, often the product was rejected by some of the European Union markets due to the maximum aflatoxin level accumulations beyond their acceptable limits. So, the present study was carried out to highlight the importance of Aspergillus species invasion in pepper, and levels of aflatoxin contamination at maturity in the field (pod form), farmers' storage and local market (powder form) in West Gojjam, Ethiopia. A total of 135 pepper samples were collected from three districts of West Gojjam (Burie, Jabitehnan, and Fnoteselam), Ethiopia for fungal and aflatoxin analysis. The producers used a pre-validated structured questionnaire to obtain information on pepper production practices. Aspergillus species isolates were recovered using potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium and counting was through dilution method (cfu g-1). The pepper pods were ground to a fine powder for aflatoxin analysis using Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). The prevalence of infected samples revealed that, pre-harvest samples (51%) were less infected by Aspergillus species, compared to local markets (65 %) and storage (79 %). Aspergillus flavus species were recovered in pre-harvest samples, whilst A. niger were found in local market samples. Aflatoxin contamination at pre-harvest, storage, and local market were 10, 47, and 42 % with levels which ranged from non-detected to 10.6, 0.3 - 17.1 and 3.1 - 19.2 ppb, respectively. The mean aflatoxin concentration detected from storage samples (10.6 ppb) and local market (12.6 ppb) were found to be above the tolerable limits set by EU (5 ppb) in pepper products. From the findings in this study, proper drying, physical separation of molded pods and use of clean storage structures should be implemented along the production chain in order to reduce aflatoxin contamination in pepper in Ethiopia